Shipping Lanes

[Phoenix]

I think that there should be some kind of shipping lanes in the game. This should be when one civ is trading with another (should include food also) and the computer generates transport ships (you don't have to build or move them) to sail across the ocean and then enteres another civs port and vice-versa. This could also be done with lorries for land traveling along roads and railways could have trains.

This would make naval blockades (and road blockades easier) as the other civ would just have to destroy them before the docked. This would also improve the naval aspects of the game.

 

[God]

Maybe there could be some map you open in the trade advisor screen which shows the shipping routes, and then you could send warships over to block it.

If you fortify in the lane, then its considered an act of war against a nation that uses it. And then you could use privateers as money source. Since they can't be indentified as part of any civ, then they just stay there and get per turn whatever's being shipped, whether luxuries or gold.

 

[spycatcher34]

Hey a good idea. One of the best I've heard in a while. And as it is now I rarely build ships.

 

[bobgote]

I definitely think that there should be some kind of map, because you can prevent civs trading by blocking trade lanes already, you just need to know where to do it.

Also, whether or not this idea happens or not, I think that privateers need to be much better than they are. Maybe an additional ability, like to capture the ships they attack, or when they sink a ship, they get a financial reward!

 

[Phoenix]

Yes the map idea was along the ideas that I was thinking of. Also the pirateers idea is great.

Now all we need to do is to find somebody to make it into a mod.

 

[Kinboat]

All great ideas... but computing all the trade routes might slow the game down more... I agree the privateer needs to do something more (maybe a chance to capture the ship instead of sinking it, or gold like bobgote says) Plus on the ocean what's to stop the Spanish Gold galleons from move around the privateer and thus moving the trade route a few spaces?

 

[Zouave]

I've posted since December that naval warfare in Civ 3 is even more simple and simpleminded than Civ 2 was, and that submarines and privateers are useless. They in reality are designed to attack enemy MERCHANT shipping - not enemy warships. But I could have hundreds of privateers or subs on a rival civ's trade routes and it would make no difference whatsoever with his trade and commerce.

Germany almost won two World Wars using subs to cut commercial shipping. American privateers helped to force Britian to make peace by sinking their merchant ships by the hundreds.

None of that can be done in Civ 3.

At least in Civ 2 we got the drama and satisfaction of delivering by sea a caravan or frigeht to a distant civ and getting that big payoff, or, using that cruiser patrolling a far off straight to SINK an enemy's caravans.

Naval warfare in Civ 3 is simply lame.

 

[ETO_Peregrine]

Ocean trade is one of the things in Civ III that seems inexplicable. Nuclear powered ships take years to cross the oceans, but two harbors with an explored sea route connecting them guarantee a flow of goods. I thought instant matter transportation was only in SMAC? Of course, blockading does work, but all available ports of a civ have to be covered for the measure to be the least bit effective.

Vulnerable trade routes were implemented in CTP, but their paths were highly illogical, and they were very easy to break.

The trade route implementation I would like to see in Civ III is similar to the behavior already applied to automated workers. Seaports of a trading civ should generate civilian ships appropriate to the sending civ's level of technology. These ships would have hidden nationality but be able to stack with units of the sending civ.

These "barb" ships would represent all outbound seaborn goods of a civ. The successful travel of the ships from one seaport to another would maintain the flow of goods. If one or more civilian traders are sunk or blocked, there should be a chance of a trade being interrupted. The reputation hit involved should fall on whoever attacks the civilian ship.

How would a trade be initiated in the first place? I have no definite opinion.

Obviously, this is a big break from the current system, but I think it could reasonably be constructed using the game elements already implemented in the original (hidden nationality, ocean pathing, randomly appearing units).

This concept has been used long enough to have a name: trip generation. It was used to calculate transportation times among all civilian buildings in SimCity 2000, so the algorithm can be very efficient.

Since trading ships would randomly pop out of seaports, the sea surrounding them would become the contested area during trade wars, as happened historically. Much more intuitive than a little red line.

 

[bobgote]

ETO Peregrine:

I agree %100, naval trade is a very important concept and should be improved. My only concern is that it may complicate matters infinitely more. If this is to be improved, I think it would need to be a Firaxis development, it would be pretty complicated and I'd think also everyone would want this. All Naval play is not really up to task. On a good note, one of the patches improved sub attack values from 4 to 8. This really helps, as 4 was hopeless (same as a frigate), so some small things are being improved. Naval Units are pretty much useless until battleships and carriers, which wasn't the case historically

 

[Phoenix]

Yes the subs were useless. I changed them on the civ-editer. Also I made nuclear subs to not reveal their nationality.